Highlight News

Dani Pedrosa took the win at the Italian MotoGP, but it was nine-time world motorcycle champion Valentino Rossi who grabbed all the headlines - for the wrong reasons.

Rossi, who has won nine times at the Mugello circuit over the past 14 seasons, crashed his Yamaha at high speed during practice on Saturday and was taken to hospital with a fractured shinbone.

The Italian underwent a two-and-a-half hour operation and now faces 4-5 months of rehab, which has ruled him out of the rest of the season.

That opened the way for Pedrosa. The Spaniard took pole position and then started on Bridgestone's hard-compound tyres to win ahead of championship leader Jorge Lorenzo.

"I had a great feeling on the bike, especially in the beginning. My rhythm was high and my lap times were good so I am delighted with this win," Pedrosa said.

Andrea Dovizioso was third for Honda ahead of the Ducati of Australia's Casey Stoner.

"Rear tyre choices were the most varied of the season so far today, which allowed us to again demonstrate that both our hard and medium compound rear slicks have sufficient performance cross-over to operate effectively in the same conditions," said Tohru Ubukata, Manager of Bridgestone's Motorcycle Tyre Development Department.

"Ultimately though, Dani Pedrosa's setup using the hard rear tyre proved strongest. On only the fourth lap of the race he set a new lap record which demonstrates good warm-up performance whilst his total race time indicates the balance of good durability of our slick tyres."

Round five of the world championship now moves to Silverstone for the British MotoGP on June 20th.